Safflower Oil

Safflower oil is a vegetable oil extracted from the seeds of the safflower plant, Carthamus tinctorius, an annual herb in the daisy family that has been cultivated mainly for its oil for roughly the last 50 years. Two distinct types exist: a high-oleic, monounsaturated variety with lower saturated fat than olive oil, and a high-linoleic, polyunsaturated variety once used industrially as a paint medium in place of linseed oil. The flavorless, colorless oil is used in cosmetics, as a cooking oil, in salad dressing and in margarine production, while the high-oleic type also serves in biodegradable lubricants, hydraulic fluids and transformer oils; clinical trial reviews have found it lowers harmful cholesterol more effectively than butter or lard. Global safflower seed production reached 723,875 tonnes in 2023, led by Kazakhstan at 33 percent of the total.